The report on causes of the five-day war between Russia and Georgia in August 2008 will be presented to EU Ambassadors in Brussels on September 30 and further publicized. The document was compiled by a group of international experts led by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini. The EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus, Peter Semneby, told RFE/RL that he believed the document — which he said he had not seen yet — contains nothing “fundamentally” new.

Privately, EU officials told RFE/RL the report will not be a “one-way street”, blaming Georgia alone, as some early leaks have been suggested. Instead, it will apportion blame relatively equally on Georgia and Russia. There will be no formal ceremony or discussion between EU member states, as it wants closure as “the bloc believes no one has anything to gain from protracted finger-pointing and to get on with the Geneva talks between Georgia, Russia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia on defusing tensions and allowing refugees return to their homes,” FRE/RL informs.

“The report is expected to roughly follow the established Western take on the events, according to which Georgia overreacted to severe and long-standing Russian provocations. While the Georgian military may have fired the first shots, it was Russia's meddling in the irredentist territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia which had set in motion the chain of events leading up to the war. Georgian officials appear to be resigned to being given some of the blame,” the source says.

However, PACE demands that before the end of this year Russia toallow EU monitors into South Ossetia and Abkhazia, lift all restrictions on humanitarian aid to the two regions and let Georgian civilians move freely across the boundary lines. “While Georgia has complied with most, albeit not all, demands of the Assembly, Russia has not complied with most of the key demands placed upon it,” Parliamentary Assembly press release reads.

PACE also encouraged the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to request the formal opening of an investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by either side during and after the war.